Between Fine Lines
by faded harmony
Summary: Hera's plan worked well- a little too well, for her own liking. The two sides were too different to coincide. She had two choices- eliminate her chosen heroes, or erase their memories and separate them. The mortal world is a different place for demigods, and after one is awakened, they begin to piece together the puzzle and find what is missing. Multishot.
1. I: The Faulted Account of Ro-Kee Cher

**Title: Between Fine Lines (Chapter I: The Faulted Account of Ro-Kee Cher)**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns all characters, I own the plot (and the fake names)**

**Author Note: Thirteen years after Hera had released her plan, she realized how difficult it would be to keep the two camps together in harmony, leaving her with two choices- exterminate her heroes in hopes the camps wouldn't attach themselves permanently, or erase their memories once more and send her chosen ones in different directions in hopes they would never meet again. Her plan almost worked- until one of her heroes stumbles upon her missing past, and pieces together the missing pieces and manages to reunite the two sides once again. **

**x.x**

**CHAPTER I: ****_THE FAULTED ACCOUNT OF RO-KEE CHER_**

_here we hide in the dark_

When her dad had once told her fame and fortune didn't mean anything, Piper hadn't been taking him seriously. Paparazzi, autographs, million-dollar contracts and the love and adoration of fans all over the world seemed like a lot to offer. It couldn't all be bad, could it? Still, it didn't seem to suit Piper that way.

But, on the other hand... Piper wasn't quite Piper anymore. Piper wasn't the shy girl who first appeared without any friends in a boarding school to be taught right from wrong. Piper wasn't part of the godly reign and battlefields and fighting monsters. Piper McLean was simply a ghost of her past, lingering in brief moments when a name struck her as odd, or familiar, or even a little suspicious. Piper McLean wasn't a hero, or at least, she didn't recall being one.

Ro-Kee Cher was a pseudonym. A fake. An absolute fraud. Piper felt like a fraud. She had been perfectly fine, when on the celebration of her thirteenth anniversary and resolution to find fame, her perfect new life suddenly faltered. Her fame, her fortune, her bright future- that seemed insignificant to her.

She'd seen his face. It had appeared in the same way it had over the course of thirteen years. In dreams, most often. On some nights his voice would weave into her mind, calling "Piper, Piper, remember me. Remember who you are. Please." Ro-Kee didn't know who Piper was. What was she trying to remember?

Sometimes she did try to remember. On her fifth year of her road to stardom, she had such a vivid dream she was forced out of her apartment and running down the streets of Las Vegas at 2 A.M. in the morning chasing after a taxi. Since then, she required herself to strap a band around her waist during the night so she didn't take any more dangerous late-night strolls.

Once, while simply taking a tour through a set, a blonde background prop had been walking by. He flashed her a handsome smile with brilliant white teeth and blue eyes- and the blue eyes reminded her and yearned of someone she had met before.

After chasing the poor studio director around for half an hour, and coming face to face with him, the charm was lost. His blue eyes seemed too dark for the one she had been looking for. Now, at the age of twenty nine, and almost at the consideration of retirement and vanishing for a decade coming closer, Ro tried to prioritize her next goals.

Goal number one- Buy a nice beach front high somewhere in the air where she wouldn't be disturbed. She never knew or remembered why, but feeling the breeze on her skin made her feel comfortable and remind her of things she couldn't remember. It was deja vu- except with her whole life.

Ro couldn't remember where she came from. She faintly remembered a summer camp, laughing along with a blonde girl, a latino looking boy, and the boy who's name slipped her tongue at every moment. A lake for swimming, hanging out in what looked like an old auto repair shop and (dare she say impossible) a flying ship with a masthead like one from a Viking myth. Then the other blonde guy...His sandy hair, the way she would hold it in her hands when they were...

"Ro?" Someone peeked and head into her studio room. "Awake yet?"

Ro sighed and huffed. "Trying to get some peace and quiet."

"This is Hollywood, chica." Whenever the studio manager said chica, Ro always felt the need to start saying something that seemed so natural on the tip of her tongue. Something to do with repairs. A repair man? Maybe a lighting boy, or an engineer? She could never remember. "It isn't ever quiet here; even the sleeping people keep talking."

Ro stifled a laugh. That was very true, for Hollywood anyways. But something- something had always wanted her to drive out east into the "western deserts" of America.

Another thing she never understood was her rejection to eating any sorts of meat. Her entire past seemed a mystery to her, but one thing was certain. She hated the idea of eating animals. She was a vegetarian from the get-go. Tofu was an option, but it was sometimes too bland for Ro's dangerous style of life. If you called dangerous wearing socks in the shower, and always holding a microphone in her left hand and writing things on her arms, then yes, Ro was a dangerous girl.

While she waited for the cue to get behind the curtain, Ro began tracing lines on the back of her hand again. "Seven half bloods shall answer the call/to storm or fire the world must fall/an oath to keep with final breath/and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death." She didn't remember where the lines were from, or what importance they had to her, but Ro knew they meant something.

Ro was suddenly picked up by a chord in her mind. She had been looking in the mirror at herself, her mind far away, when something clicked.

Whether it was something in the light, or her mind had suddenly come across the right note, she stood up suddenly and knocked over the tiny temporary table under her.

"Ro- Ro, are you alright?" She was swarmed by a few stagehands and her manager.

Ro blinked repeatedly. "Jason. Jason. Jason. That's his name."

Her manager waved the help away, and helped her down back into a chair. "Who's name?" He asked gently, as if asking a lost child where their parents were.

"Jason," Ro said again, persistently, as if the name was the only thing keeping her on earth. "Jason."

**x.x**

The insane and crazy city of Hollywood was certain she had completely gone insane and crazy.

Maybe she had snapped, Ro thought with much bitterness. With only her bathrobe and slippers, she kept walking into things and apologizing to her furniture. None of her inanimate objects responded to her, except the coffee machine which spoke in an automated tone: "How would you like your brew?" and Ro confirmed she had completely snapped.

"I'm losing it," In one of her talks with her manager, she gripped her hair and ranted around her house while he sat as stiff as a board on her plush white expensive faux couch. "I'm absolutely losing it," she repeated.

"Maybe that's your fading-on," the studio manager had tried to convince her a year ago maybe she should begin to fade back into society. Stardom only lasted so long, he said. One day you're the biggest hit and the next you're a nobody. "Maybe it's your call to move on."

Ro shook her head. "You don't understand. It's not my popularity and money I'm worried about. I'm trying to remember who I _was_ to who I _am_ and who I _want_ to be."

The studio director sighed. "I don't know about your past, Ro. Nobody does. Neither do you. It was part of your big publicity pull. Now it's going away."

Ro snorted. "I'm done with it. I don't need that anymore."

He stood up from her couch, and extended his hand to her. "I guess we're done here," he said.

Ro tucked her hands under her arms. "I guess we are."

He didn't even glance at her on his way out. "It's a shame. You had so much potential."

Ro watched the trail of dust behind his car as he drove out of the main gates. "It is a shame," she agreed. "A shame I ever lost what I used to have."

**x.x**

For many weeks, she couldn't bring herself to do anything. The only time the doors were opened was the cleaning service to regularly clean her huge house. She liked the girl who cleaned her house, she had a nice gentle name. Hazel something, but even when the name made sense to Ro she could never match it up with the right face. Besides, the woman who cleaned her house was from Japan, and she rarely spoke except to ask for her week's salary.

Sometimes she stayed up late in the night, from the moment the day ended to when the sun rose up, she spent it sitting outside on her second level patio and looking out at the sky. The stars greeted her every night, as did the moon, and the sun to meet her yet again in the morning.

She had to lock the windows and close the doors in her house when she took herself to sleepwalking again. Once she woke up standing on a ledge over the balcony, and panicked and almost fell off.

Ro couldn't trust herself to sleep during the night anymore, because that was when her dreams were the most vivid and horrifying and the most likely to affect her. She became a sort of hibernating owl.

It was on one of those backwards mornings when she usually slept through the day, when her television had been turned on to check that World War three hadn't broken out. Ro had been sipping coffee in the living room, watching the many colors on the screen but not really paying attention.

She switched to a different station, and just as she went back to Channel surfing to catch a few minutes of Iron Man (the first or second one?) when she saw it.

"Hola, people!" A gruff looking guy appeared on Ro's screen like an ad. "My name is Denali Zaldev! I fix your car, you pay me money!" He had a strange accent, like someone from a Mexican community trying to speak english. "This is your commander of my plant, Vald- I mean Zaldev corporations. I can fix anything! Bring it to me and I'll have it right back in a jiff. Only in Houston my good peoples, so y'all have to drive down here first before I be fixing anything!"

He laughed obnoxiously, his large Santa Claus-like belly jiggling like Jell-O. He had a young face for someone who Ro would have guessed to be older, but most of it was obscured with a curly massive beard.

Something else snapped in Ro's mind. "Zaldev...Denali...Valdez?" That moment of memories came flooding back in a gust. "Leo!"

"Piper...Beauty Queen...Repair Boy..." Piper muttered over and over. "Leo Valdez! I remember!"

Piper grabbed the screen, as if expecting her friend to suddenly jump out of the picture and embrace her. "Leo!" She cried desperately, because something in her mind had just gone kablooey and she was out of whack.

The commercial was cut off by the news on CNN about a recent accident with a surfer in Florida having crashed into the rocky turf and was currently missing, but Piper dashed to her iPad and quickly tapped her fingers over the touch screen.

"Zaldev...Corporations..." She typed the name into Google and clicked search. She got 24 results on the screen. The first listed was a chemical in toothpaste (what kind of-?) and the second was Piper's Hail Mary, the only thing that was finally beginning to make sense.

She still felt that gap in her mind. Some other parts of her past were still here, but she remembered just enough that this guy- Leo Valdez- had been with her a long time. They had known each other as best friends, and they had...

The gap was still there.

Why had she left then? Piper could only guess. Something had happened along the way. Something like...to make them forget. Someone had meddled with their memories and suppressed them..until now. But why now? Why after so long, suddenly remember one name and a few other random memories that didn't go in chronological order or even make logical sense?

Logic isn't always the answer, a voice in her mind said. It wasn't Piper's head voice.

Without hesitating, Piper grabbed her coat and an extra shirt. Stopped briefly in her room, she spotted her bagged outfit she was supposed to wear for the concert she had "lost it." And even the tiny mirror she always took with her, strapping it to her waist as she ran. Grabbing a few other necessities (like money) as well, and her cell phone, she locked the door and went for her car.

**x.x**

The garage was underground, kind of, with a little elevator to lift the cars up to the driveway. Piper started the ignition and pressed her garage door remote, which lifted the car out of the basement and onto the ground. Piper stepped on the gas and was speeding towards 137 Memorial Drive, Houston, Texas.

After many stops for a bathroom, drive in Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts (hey, Piper had waited thirteen years, she could spare a little time to get caffeine) and stopping to ask for directions, she got off the exit and rolled up to the address.

Now that she was there, Piper began to wonder what she was thinking. The sane part of her was telling her she had lost her marbles, why would she need to walk into an auto repair shop in search of someone she hadn't seen in thirteen years and didn't even have a broken car. The other part of her (insane) mind kept telling her to get in there and find out what the hell was going on.

I'm crazy, she thought as she parked her car in the front right into the garage. She stepped out, slammed the door, and locked it. When the area was quiet again, all Piper could hear was the distinct ringing of echoes throughout the empty room.

"Hello?" Her voice came out too quiet. "Hello?" Her voice echoed through the walls, rebounding back and laughing at her _There's no one here, don't you see, you're wrong_ which she ignored.

"Denali Zaldev?" She called again. "Are you here?"

She was interrupted as someone flew down from the ceiling from right above her, and she screamed.

"Hello, beautiful lady," The guy from the commercial was grinning in a comical way. His Santa beard and Santa belly were still trying to recover the gravity shift from hanging in a different direction.

One of the ropes from the rafters had caught on his feet, and he was unfortunate enough to be hanging upside down. He was still smiling, which unnerved Piper enough. She cleared her throat and spoke "I'm Ro. My car is broken, and I was told you could fix it."

Denali stuffed his hand into his tool belt around his waist and pulled out a mini saw. "One second," he told her and cut through the rope around his ankle and fell face-first onto the floor.

Dusting off his palms, he grinned at her again and took in the fact she was only wearing a sparkling red dress that might have been appropriate for going out to a club, but not to have a car fixed. It was cut too short, and showed way too much up top for Piper's opinion, and she felt quite exposed.

"I can fix a lot of things," he said, as she started walking back up the platform. "Let's see what I can do about your car, pretty lady."

**x.x**

**And that's the first chapter! **

**Next chapter: The Twisted Tale of Denali Zaldev**


	2. II: The Twisted Tale of Denali Zaldev

**Title: Between Fine Lines (Chapter II: The Twisted Tale of Denali Zaldev)**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns PJO/HoO**

**Author Note: Thirteen years after Hera had released her plan, she realized how difficult it would be to keep the two camps together in harmony, leaving her with two choices- exterminate her heroes in hopes the camps wouldn't attach themselves permanently, or erase their memories once more and send her chosen ones in different directions in hopes they would never meet again. Her plan almost worked- until one of her heroes stumbles upon her missing past, and pieces together the missing pieces and manages to reunite the two sides once again.**

**_ And here's Leo, everyone! I hope you enjoy~ **

**x.x**

**CHAPTER II: THE TWISTED TALE OF DENALI ZALDEV**

_shadows of who we were and what we embark_

****There had always been that little tiny problem with cars he could never fix. He could fix transmissions, shot engines, and even broken valves with no problem. But he could never fix a car that had never been broken in the first place.

Denali decided to test his newest (and beautiful) customer. "What do you think is wrong with it?" He asked as he pried open the hood. From his expert opinion, he couldn't see anything visibly wrong with the car, but he hadn't checked the engine yet.

"I don't know," Ro said, walking over to stand on the other side of the hood and looking at him, not the car.

Denali coughed uncomfortably, by the way her multicolored eyes were watching his facial reactions. "Well, uh, anyways. Where did you drive from to get it fixed? I mean, the car looks fine to me." That was true, sometimes he could just feel when something was wrong with a car, just by touching it.

There was a blank expression on the woman's face for a minute, and something in his mind triggered. Hadn't he seen her face somewhere before? A magazine, or on television? Was she an actress? He couldn't remember her name, but he would bet his toolbelt that she was somebody famous. Her sparkly interview dress only reinforced the idea.

"I'm coming from-" she seemed to hesitate on the last part. "Los Angeles."

Denali whistled. "You took quite a trip here miss, just to visit good o'le Zaldev incorp. Let me just get my thingamabob and I'll see what is wrong with your car."

**x.x**

When he returned, she was still standing there and looking around the room, from the walls to the ceiling to the desks and tables littered with papers. Denali had never been a particularly neat person, and that wasn't about to change. Denali didn't understand why this woman would have driven from Cali just to drive out into the middle of nowhere. Then again, it wasn't any of his business.

He had always wondered a lot of things. For example, the toolbelt he had always had from as far back as he remembered. He didn't remember where it came from, but all he knew was that it felt lucky and he could fix anything when he had it.

Tools came naturally to him. He had come out of nowhere, which was a mystery to him, with nothing but a toolbelt and a vague conception of who he was. It had always bothered him why he couldn't remember anything past his high school life, which might have been concerning, but if he did remember anything from his old life was you shouldn't dwell on things too long. Then you get philosophical and nothing good can come from that.

He was about to prop the car up, when Ro grabbed his hand. Denali stopped working, looking at the hand, and looking up the arm to the owner. Her face was expressionless.  
"Leo," she said. "Do you remember me?"

"Miss, last time I checked my name is not-"  
"Leo," she repeated, insistently, this time stepping closer. "Do you remember who I am?"

Denali racked his brain for her face. He studied her closer, looking at her superficial face with eyes looking desperate and searching his own for any signs of recognition.

"I know who you are," he said at last, although it was total bull. "You're that actress aren't you? Really famous, her name is Ro something something-"

Her hands dropped to her sides. "Leo," she pleaded again. "You have to remember me. Pipes? Beauty Queen?"

Her hands dropped to her sides, looking so miserable and hopeless, Denali almost regretted stepping away from her, and it was a shame to displease pretty girls, but this was freaking him out.

"Piper," Ro repeated- or Piper, whatever her name was.

"Look lady," Denali closed the hood quietly, unhooking it from the lever and setting the car back down into neutral. "I fix cars, and I know my name is Denali, and ain't nothing going to change that."

Piper closed her eyes. "I was afraid-" she started. "that you wouldn't remember. But Leo, you need to trust me. Out there, yes, maybe I'm a famous supermodel actress whatever the hell I had. I might have been Ro-Kee Cher out there. But I know my name is Piper inside. And you know my big stunt was not having a past. Well that's true. I don't remember anything, but you-" She started ranting now, pacing back and forth with quick strides in her heels which made clicking sounds every time she took a step. "I saw your face on my television, just as I was losing my mind because I _want_- no, _needed_ to know what was going on. I saw who you were and I remembered. You have to remember, Leo." Her voice broke. "I'm seeing things all the time, sleepwalking off balconies, and remembering names and faces I don't even know. I'm going mad, honestly."

Denali blinked. "Uh, is it a Hollywood thing, or are y'all just naturally this crazy?"

She managed a weak laugh, before facing him again. "You are Leo Valdez. You were my best friend. You-"

"Lady, I'm a poor mechanic living in Texas. I ain't friends with no super hot famous movie star who just randomly pops in my workshop some day. I think you've just been smoking something funny up in those Hollywood woods and you've lost it."

Piper/Ro gave a bitter laugh. "I wish. Leo, how long have you had this workshop?"

"Thirteen years."

"And do you remember anything about your past?"

"Lady, that's none of your-"

"Leo. Do you?"

"My name isn't Leo."

"Answer my question."  
"Well, no, I guess. Sometimes glimpses- maybe I had a concussion once and forgot everything?" He deadpanned.

Piper paced back and forth ago. "I started my career 13 years ago, and I didn't have any recollection of my past until recently, but I only remembered your name and my own name. Leo, you have to understand- there was a reason we forgot. There's something else none of us remember."

"You're friggin' crazy." Denali stated again. "Now, would you mind leaving before I call the cops because you're actually starting to freak me out-"

"You wouldn't dare, Valdez."

"Um. You may be a celebrity, but you're high or something. Get out of my workshop."  
"Leo-"

"No. Get out." Denali started to get angry. "My name isn't Leo, and I don't know you. You're pulling a gag on me or something, and I ain't having none of this crap. _Get. Out._"

"C'mon Repair Boy, just listen-"

_Repair Boy._ Only Piper would call him that- when she was punching him or elbowing him when he did something stupid. That one time he managed to blow up New Rome a second time earned him a friendly punch in the face and then being almost stabbed by a brutal girl with dark hair. Her name was somewhere- Rina? Tina? Rai? Dina? He couldn't remember now.

It was like being sucked down a toilet in slow motion. One minute he was yelling for a stuck up crazy Hollywood actress to get the hell off his property, and the next he was running for her and hugging her so tightly he might have been trying to squeeze her to death.

Piper. Beauty Queen McLean. _Piper McLean_. That was her name. She was his best friend, and they had so many adventures with...with...well, that _other guy_, and they were like siblings. Always going out of their way and annoying the other and trying to make their lives hell. Ah yes, sibling love. They went to camp somewhere...with other people...his name was really Leo Valdez...his mom died and...

The rest he was drawing a blank, but everything came back so quickly and he was hugging Piper and probably crying, because after thirteen years of forgetting your own friend-sister-is too emotional and will need tissues for _asdfghjkl_-ing and Titanic-ending heart-wrenching sobs._ I'm sorry I yelled at you, I'm sorry I forgot you, I'm sorry sorry sorry..._

After a while, of them both hugging each other, recognizing and remembering who they were, Piper released him and Leo looked at his best friend's face, trying to memorize every detail so he wouldn't forget again.  
"You remembered," Piper had a watery beaming smile.

"Who says I ever forgot." Leo answered and hugged her again.

"Uh, you _did _ forget." Piper held him at arm length. "Now that we are re-acquainted, Leo- what the heck happened you you?"

"Whad'ya mean?" Leo looked down and yelped. "Sweet mother of Hades, I've really let myself go."  
As he said it, his stomach seemed to collapse inward and a sheet of fake plastic and out of his shirt.

Leo's only thoughts were: _"Dang, I had a fake stomach? No wonder I always felt uncomfortable."_ Piper laughed, tears still coming from her eyes. "Oh Leo, only you would have the fake inflatable stomach."

Leo managed a smile, pulling the inflatable balloon and kicking it into a corner of his 'workshop'. He looked around one last time, because he had a feeling he would be leaving real soon with his friend. "Glad that's out, it would have been nearly impossible to crap that all out."

Piper leaned on the front of her car for support as she kept laughing. "Oh, I missed you, Valdez."

"I did too, Queenie."

Leo unbuckled his workshop tool belt because it didn't feel the same to him anymore. He knew he used to always wear one, but he liked one in particular...and this wasn't the one. He hopped in the driver's seat, while Piper marched in after him. Leo clapped his hands and the lights went out, and they drove off into the rising noon sun and onto the highway.

"Where to next?" Leo asked as he kept the car on the speed limit and kept his eyes burned on the horizon.

Piper was looking at his face, like she was still having trouble registering the fact he remembered and they remembered and everything was suddenly back to normal. "You have a beard," she stated.  
Leo let one hand off the steering wheel to stroke it. "Now I can look smart as I stroke it thoughtfully."

Piper laughed, shoving his shoulder just like old times. "Yup, you're Valdez all right. It's been boring without you."  
"It's been lonely," Leo agreed. "I ask again before you interrupted me- where are we going?"

Piper looked out over the empty hot dusty road into the sun, before turning away from the burning glare. "We need to find the others."

"Others? I don't remember..?" Leo drove in silence, his brow furrowed in thought. "You're right, there was someone else..but..I don't remember...hmm..."  
"I'm getting a vibe about rocks," Piper said as she stretched out and looked over the flat plain of Texas.

"That's 'cus all you're seeing it rock."

Piper giggled. "Rocks rocks everywhere, not a diamond in the rough."  
Leo froze, almost sending the car off the road. "That's it, diamonds."

"I never liked that song by Rihanna- she was kinda always a little-"

"No, Pipes. _Diamonds._ Think. Someone we knew was connected to Diamonds," Leo chewed on that for a while, before looking back at Piper who was giving him the same acknowledged look.

"Hazel," they said simultaneously. Piper took out a road map and traced it with her finger.

"Next highway we get off," she informed him. "I think it's time we took a visit to New Orleans."

**x.x**

It was a long drive- like, several days. Piper made Leo stop from time to time to get gas and take a bathroom break, and after his third hour straight of driving, they stopped at a run down motel somewhere by the border of Texas just before the would reach had been many miles of dusty desert and cactus forever. When they stopped, Piper paid with cash, and they were unsure about the rooms, so they got a one bed with a pullout couch which Leo insisted sleeping on.

With the television on, neither of them actually ended up sleeping. Piper stared at the walls for hours while Leo got a few decent hours of sleep, and when he woke up it was still late (or was it early because it was like three in the morning?) and she was still frozen.

Leo got up and walked over, sitting on the bed next to her. "You okay, Pipes?"

Piper took a shuddering breath. "Yeah. I just can't sleep."

"Insomniac problem? I could whack you over the head and send you to sleep." She didn't smile, and kept looking out the tiny greased window of the room.

"I keep thinking." was all she said. "About our past. It's frustrating not to remember."

Leo was unsure what to do, so he awkwardly draped his arm over her. "We'll figure it out. First we gonna pick up Haze, then we find, uh, I guess we'll probably have to remember who we're looking for before we try to find them- but it'll work out. You'll see."

Piper managed a smile. "You always were the more optimistic one," she mused.

"Yeah, and when I went pessimistic you knew things were bad." This time she actually laughed. "Get some sleep, Pipes. I'll make sure no ninjas come and attack you."

"I'm actually more concerned about nightmares," Piper grumbled, but she leaned back into her pillow and closed her eyes. "And sleepwalking. It's actually gotten quite concerning and suicidal."

"Well then, I guess I'll stay here and make sure you don't go walking out onto the highway and get hit by some tractor."

"Will you?" Piper's voice was quieter, Leo snuggled up next to his friend and covered her with a blanket.

"Of course, you're my best friend." He answered, but she was already asleep.

**x.x**

The little bell on the door rung loudly when Piper opened the door. They had driven to Louisiana, and gotten stuck in downtown traffic, before deciding it was too late out and got another hotel room and stayed the night in New Orleans.

The next morning, they set out on the streets, simply waiting for a sign where to find their missing friend. There was a reason they had forgotten; something had happened and they had to be brainwashed and sent away. But not they remembered, and something else was sending them in the directions they needed to find the answers again.

Piper had taken his hand so they wouldn't lose each other in the crowd, trying to look like a normal pair of people taking a stroll through a beautiful city in the morning. Piper had toned down her supermodel suspiciousness by wearing lime green converse and white shirts with hipster-looking stockings and a t-shirt cut sweatshirt. Leo was just wearing jeans, sneakers, and his favorite kind of suspenders over a white shirt. He felt actually, normal, for the first time in thirteen years.

Out of nowhere, Piper saw an ad for restaurants and they decided to go to Popeyes for lunch, simply because it was convenient. That was when they had gone inside, met the obnoxious bell over the door to alert people every time you freaking moved it someone was entering or leaving, and suddenly couldn't find an appetite.

The woman standing by the door was a Popeye employee, wearing the manager outfit and was scolding another fellow employee in a ridiculous southern accent Leo couldn't even decipher. She had dark cocoa skin and curly hair the color of cinnamon and chestnut. The back of Leo's mind tingled.

"-and I ain't babying your sorry behind for another month! Get outta my restaurant, you keep pestering those little young'ns and I ain't taking none of this bull! You gonna get my place closed down by the way you taking care of this mess and _Uh-uh_ you better learn some respect or I'm gonna kick your britches out my door and onto the street! _Y'all hear me?_"

"Yes m'am," the employee she was ratting out looking humiliated and flushed. "I'm sorry m'am." He looked embarrassed to be ratted out by his manager, who was shorter and appeared younger than him.

"You better be sorry, now _get back there!_" She swirled around, still looking angry and holding a broom threateningly. Her angry frown melted into a welcoming smile faster than a snowman in the middle of Texan summer. She had bright golden eyes that looked shinier than pure gold. "How there, y'all? Welcome to _Popeyes_! I'm sorry y'all had to see that little show there, why don't I get you a seat. My name is Sapphire, and I'll be y'all server for right now. Table for two?"

**x.x**

**Up next:**

**The Unfortunate Fable of Sapphire Smyle**

**Anon reviews:**

**Guest: What does "NOOOO FRAZEL" mean. Does that mean "OMG I WANT FRANK AND HAZEL" or "OMG YOU KILLED THEM" or "OMGZ I DONT LIKE THEM" Because now you've got me very confused.**

**asdf- :D I LOVE YOU TOO, RANDOM CITIS(Z?)EN! (HUGS)**

**That's all for now, BAYE :D **

**-universal**


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